NS tenants must leave Cape Breton apartments due to contamination

SYDNEY, N.S. - Eleven tenants in Sydney are being told to relocate within the next three months after it was decided their fuel-contaminated units should be demolished.
New Dawn Enterprises, a community development corporation, held a meeting Tuesday evening to inform residents that no money will be put into 40 units on the former radar base, known as Pine Tree Park.
The residents of the houses, from 49 to 93 Dryden Avenue, were notified of the meeting by letter last week.
"New Dawn's conclusion is that to remove the contamination beneath the units by either excavating below them or moving the unit is not practical. The age and condition of the units suggests that the most cost-effective option is demolition," a letter from New Dawn reads.
In 2007, New Dawn said it was forced to abandon a multi-million dollar affordable housing project because the Department of National Defence was moving too slowly on the cleanup of contaminated soil at the former radar base.
That came a few years after the organization discovered 40 previously unknown home heating oil tanks buried in the ground and had them removed.
It was estimated the tanks had been abandoned in the 1950s and the fuel oil that remained had seeped under the homes adjacent to the tanks.
Since that time, New Dawn said it has been in negotiations with DND to clean up the contamination.
New Dawn said it is offering $1,500 to assist in the move, reimbursement of each tenant's final month's rent and assistance in finding new accommodation.
"When we did ask when that was due and payable and it's not actually until you move out and hand in the keys," said Norman Leslie, one of the affected tenants.
"So it's not really a help in assisting with the move, mind you it will be a help after the move."